O'Malley: "I Don't Have A Whole Lot Of Horses To Trade," In Minimum Wage Fight

O'Malley: "I Don't Have A Whole Lot Of Horses To Trade," In Minimum Wage Fight

Laura Howell, executive director of Community Serivces of Maryland reacts to the Senate Finance Committee chairman linking the minimum wage increase to an increase in the salaries paid to workers who help the disabled. Download This File

WBAL's Robert Lang talks to Congressman Elijah Cummings after the rally. Download This File

Governor Martin O'Malley speaks to reporters after the rally on the prospect of the minimum wage bill passing. Download This File

Governor Martin O'Malley says that he is confident the legislature will pass his legislation to increase the minimum wage, but he adds that there is little he can offer reluctant senators who are unwilling to support the bill.

"I don't mind a degree of horse trading, but I don't have a lot of horses to trade," O'Malley told WBAL News after a rally Thursday calling for support of the bill.

O'Malley was responding to comments made from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mac Middleton who said Wednesday that his panel probably won’t vote out a minimum wage bill until sometime next week.

The governor said that the debate is "at a critical juncture," with just over two weeks left in the legislative session, where the governor says lawmakers will tie their support for the minimum wage to other issues.

Among the issue Middleton wants resolved a raise in the state’s reimbursement for paying aides to the severely disabled.

If the minimum wage is raised to $10.10-an hour, those workers would be making less than the minimum wage, based on the state's $9.45-an hour reimbursement rate

Middleton says not raising the reimbursement rate would be "unacceptable." Middleton says his committee is considering raising the reimbursement rate to at least 35% above the minimum wage, which would be $13.64-an-hour in January, 2017, the month where the minimum wage would be increased to $10.10-an hour.

The reimbursement covers about 18,000 workers.

Laura Howell, executive director of Community Services of Maryland, welcomes the news that Middleton is linking the minimum wage increase to increasing the reimbursement rates for these workers.

"Direct support workers in our community earn just a little more than the minimum wage, and if the minimum wage increases and funding for their salaries doesn't, they will in effect become minimum wage workers," Howell told WBAL News.

The governor spoke at a rally today organized by Raise Maryland, the labor, business and clergy coalition, that is pushing for the legislation.

More than 50 workers gathered outside of Atwater's Bakery in Catonsville, where the owner, Ned Atwater, pays employees more than the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

One of the Atwater's workers, Carrie Lattimore, spoke at the rally, telling the story of how she worked at a minimum wage job at another coffee shop, before she was hired at Atwater's six months ago.

"With the financial instability that I felt. without making a living wage, and the lack of respect that I felt from not making a minimum wage, and not feeling valued there, it didn't want to make you work hard," Lattimore told the crowd, which included Congressman Elijah Cummings.